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The sun was out this afternoon and sunlight always gives me better photographs than artificial light. So here's a better close-up 

of the 517, only trouble is a better picture shows up more blemishes.

 

I've swapped the driving wheels which had horrible rubber traction tires for a spare pair of all metal front wheels from East Kent Models, they are a different batch 

with a different colour finish.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 weeks later...

 

Here's one I prepared earlier, a stalled project.

 

Working to the Beattie drawings in the Month? 19XX Railway Modeller I hacked another body about and ended up with a model too narrow to

fit on the etched chassis, there is nowhere for the coupling rods to go up and down.

I got them both as a dead project from an exhibition junk sale, I think the chassis is a Millholme Model etch for the Hornby or Airfix

body, I cut so much of it off the back it does not work any more.

 

Working to the Beattie drawings I got a loco that was much shorter in the cab and bunker area. It's been put away out of sight for years.

The gear box is a Branchlines Multibox driving the front axle, the motor a Mashima and there's still room for that fantastic gadget to enable smooth

running, far better than any DCC chip, a mechanical flywheel. Pity I could not get the back wheel to work.

 

attachicon.gifp8280168a.jpg

 

attachicon.gifp8280172a.jpg

 

attachicon.gifp8280177.jpg

I am currently upgrading an AIRFIX 14XX (blog to follow) and, as various contibutors to this site have pointed out the chassis/motor on the Airfix is very different to the Dapol/Hornby version. The chassis weight in the boiler section is separate to the tank weights, so could be easily removed to accomodate a gearbox and smaller motor, thereby allowing full cab detailing.

 

So, could you, or anyone else, advise me as to the best gearbox/motor configuration to drive the FRONT axle, as per the Airfix original?

 

Jim

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Possible upgrades for an Airfix chassis;

 

*Keep the original gear box and drive it with a double ended can motor with original the prop shaft, and a flywheel on the other end of the motor.

 

*Do Exacto-Scale do a similar gearbox?

 

*Build it one of the High Level replacement chassis.

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Here's one I prepared earlier, a stalled project.

 

Working to the Beattie drawings in the Month? 19XX Railway Modeller I hacked another body about and ended up with a model too narrow to

fit on the etched chassis, there is nowhere for the coupling rods to go up and down.

I got them both as a dead project from an exhibition junk sale, I think the chassis is a Millholme Model etch for the Hornby or Airfix

body, I cut so much of it off the back it does not work any more.

 

Working to the Beattie drawings I got a loco that was much shorter in the cab and bunker area. It's been put away out of sight for years.

The gear box is a Branchlines Multibox driving the front axle, the motor a Mashima and there's still room for that fantastic gadget to enable smooth

running, far better than any DCC chip, a mechanical flywheel. Pity I could not get the back wheel to work.

 

attachicon.gifp8280168a.jpg

 

attachicon.gifp8280172a.jpg

 

attachicon.gifp8280177.jpg

Thank you, I've just downloaded the picture of the gear box/mashima motor config. I want to do a similar thing!

 

Jim

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  • 8 months later...

This one, although I don't think it was such a thorough job as this one will be http://www.gwr.org.uk/pro517.html

 

This is great. You and Knobhead between you are covering all the locos I need to convert! Is the Hornby 14xx the same as the Airfix one, or have changes been made to the body or chassis?

The bodies are identical, although before Hornby aquired the tooling for the 14xx, Dapol modified the chassis design, installing the current small "M" motor.

 

And that is why the GWR 14xx has a BR 14xx numberplate moulding on the smokebox door.

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  • 1 year later...

I've taken up this model conversion again after being put off by discovering the side tanks are a bit too high.
It runs nicely now I have swap the rubber traction tyred wheels for all metal ones so I could not leave it to languishing, so I must complete it ready for layout service.

To sum up what I have done to modify the Hornby 14XX into the earlier 517 class;

Shorten footplate by cutting it away between tank and splashers, this makes the model about 4mm shorter so the same amount has to be cut off from the back of the chassis.

Lower boiler and replace square firebox with a round top.
Cut away cab, build new smaller half cab, modify bunker and build a cover over motor.

Taller chimney and dome.

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Photo 139
I've reinstated the handrails, Bachmann couplings held in place with the original chassis screws, as much weight as possible over and in front of the driving wheels. I've used bits of lead and miniature lead shot after making small containers of plasticard to receive it. I had to cut off the top of the front chassis allow for lowering the boiler.
There are reinforcing triangles of plastic glued behind the front footsteps, this is to reinforce the footplate join at this point.

 

 

 

 

post-6220-0-63501500-1424203904_thumb.jpg
Photo 136
The flash photo reveals the copper pick-up strip behind the trailing wheel is not quite behind the tyre properly.

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  • 6 months later...
Having wrecked my 14XX body when trying to convert it to a 517 I turned my thoughts to 3D printing.

 

The images below are my third attempt which I did as a cut-away to make sure everything fitted inside, As this seems to work I've ordered a 3D print of the whole body which left Shapeways thismorning!

 

GWR 517, Trial print

GWR 517, Trial print

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Having wrecked my 14XX body when trying to convert it to a 517 I turned my thoughts to 3D printing.
 
The images below are my third attempt which I did as a cut-away to make sure everything fitted inside, As this seems to work I've ordered a 3D print of the whole body which left Shapeways thismorning!

 

 

Hi,

Can these be ordered?

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Once I can prove it fits I intend to release it for sale on Shapeways. As a cautionary note I had to stretch the body to fit the Hornby chassis and raised the tank/boiler level to keep things in proportion so it is not exactly to scale for 1473 Fair Rosamund which I am trying to model. However, these dimensions are about right for the last batch 3571-80, but there are quite a few detailed difference.

 

I therefore hope to modify the the virtual model to produce a print of the 3571 series. Probably 3574 with an open cab and belper fire box at first.

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Once I can prove it fits I intend to release it for sale on Shapeways. As a cautionary note I had to stretch the body to fit the Hornby chassis and raised the tank/boiler level to keep things in proportion so it is not exactly to scale for 1473 Fair Rosamund which I am trying to model. However, these dimensions are about right for the last batch 3571-80, but there are quite a few detailed difference.

 

I therefore hope to modify the the virtual model to produce a print of the 3571 series. Probably 3574 with an open cab and belper fire box at first.

 

Thank you.  It would seem the 3571s were just a few months too late for my period.

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3574? Sign me up for one of those please. Just what I want for a collection of GWR locomotive classes running in the West Midlands in the immediate post-WWII era. Worcester's was the last to go in 1949 and I think even Tyseley had one up to 1945. When do you think you'll have it on Shapeways? Yours in drooling anticipation...

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  • 4 weeks later...

1473 in Red Oxide

My 3D print of GWR 517 class 1473 Fair Rosamund (in later condition) is coming together. I needed to ream out the chimney to accept the original 14XX body screw head. Nothing too technical just used a emall flat blade screw driver of about the right size, taking care not to split the chimney!

 

Next job will be to modify the chassis (or at least remove the front sand boxes to enable the Slaters buffers to be fitted.

 

Now I am happy with the fit I have released this for sale on my Stafford Road Models page on Shapeways. I have also produced open cab versions with different fire box types but not printed them yet but released them as BETA just in case anyone else wants to have a go.

 

Now where can I get some whistles with bent stalks to fit into the cab front spectacle plate?

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The square parts of your model look really good, but you could do with using a few more polygons on the rounded parts like the dome and the boiler as they look a bit angular. Shapeways has an upload limit of 1,000,000 polygons so you can get away with using quite a few to make sure you get the smoothest look to your curves.

 

Here's an example using a fictitious dome I've drawn to illustrate:

 

post-146-0-97279200-1443803986_thumb.jpg

 

I've included an enlargement so you can seen the individual faces. The whole of the dome is around 30,000 polys, which whilst it seems a lot, it's actually not as a percentage of the 1,000,000 poly limit. For the boiler I'd use a cylinder with at least 1000 sides.

 

All the best,

 

Jack

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for the comments Rods_of_Revolution. Unfortunately the 3D drafting package is a free and very basic one so I do not have much scope for reducing the number of polygons.

 

To BG John, The other two 3D prints are open cab modifications of my Fair Rosamund but I've since mislaid the book so I cannot find the dates. Looking at JH Russells book on GWR locos. The Round topped fire box version is similar to 539 (circa 1910) and 518 (cica1912) but valance between the cab steps and rear buffer beam was shallower by the time these photos were taken and both had received outside bearings to their rear wheels(I may make this modification in the future if my test print works). While the belper firebox version is similar to 1440 (during the 1920's) but this again has the shallower valence and outside bearings.

 

Hope this helps

 

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quite Right, but my HMRS transfer was too big, having allowed for numbe rplate.

When I can find a smaller "GREAT WESTERN" I will replace them.

The actual photo I worked from for 1467 just had a number plate at tank centre.

Still researching for more photos

Peter

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yes, that's the photo

Interestingly page 124 of Russell Great Western Engines shows a similar loco with "GWR" on the side tanks but in an odd position

Unfortunately although taken in 1947 that isn't actually a "517" class, although developed from it!

 

Keith

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